The use of “lighter than air” balloons for military operations can be traced to the 1800s. Generally, these early balloons were used for: aerial bombing of military targets; aerial reconnaissance by captive (tethered) balloons; and communications. Both the Union and Confederate armies used balloons for reconnaissance during the American Civil War, marking the first time that balloons were used in the United States for reconnaissance.
Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration in the United States operates a series of radar-equipped tethered balloons wherein referred to as aerostats to detect low-flying aircraft attempting to enter the United States across the southern border. A plurality of aerostats are positioned approximately 350 miles apart, from California to Florida to Puerto Rico, to provide radar coverage along the entire southern border.
During the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the first indication of the Iraqi ground advance was from a radar-equipped aerostat that detected Iraqi armor and air assets moving south. Later, surveillance aerostats were used in the 2004 American occupation of Iraq. These aerostats had an optics system as payloads to detect and observe enemies from miles away. Aerostats are advantageous since suspending surveillance payloads from a generally stabile platform allows for data to be collected over a wide geographic area.
It should be understood that in remote areas such as the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, mobility of equipment faces unique logistical challenges. Environmental factors, distances, and circumstances surrounding operations in a foreign country create these unique challenges. For example, forward bases of NATO forces in Afghanistan require constant supplies including gasoline, ammunition, repair parts, and other consumables. Forward bases can be in mountainous areas, traditionally Taliban strongholds, where most airfields are unsuitable for heavy aircraft and supply has to be by palletized, parachute drops.
Additionally, the battlefield mandates that vehicles maintain a balance of armor to protect occupants while also being more fuel efficient to reduce the amount of fuel that needs to be resupplied. Attempts to improve armor include that described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,191,694 which can be used for tactical trucks. Transparent armor is also advantageous for such trucks as described in United States Patent Application Publication 2003/0190439. Not only are these trucks armored, but the terrain in which they operate require that the truck itself be rugged to perform in tough, uneven, unfriendly environments.
The use of aerostats is not limited to stationary mooring systems and aerostats can be deployed from mobile platforms. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,479 described a tethered aerostat attached to a trailer truck. The trailer truck is a flatbed trailer truck that also carries the electrical generator, helium, fuel supply, and shelter. The trailer truck also carries a tower and a boom fastened to the truck flathead adjacent to the tower. U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,221 also shows a ground based mooring system which uses a flatbed trailer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,286 also discloses a mooring system that can be on a mobile installation. Specifically, these references show a flatbed trailer that is hauled by a tractor trailer cab. U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,576 discloses a communications system using an aerostat moored to such a trailer. None of these references are particularly well suited for mobile mooring systems for aerostats as these references are not easily armored, are large in size creating disadvantages when traversing rugged terrain, not fuel efficient and generally difficult to transport to remote locations such as battlefields in foreign countries.
Another use of aerostats is shown in United States Patent Application Publication 2011/0116905, Method And Apparatus for Transporting Elongated, Cumbersome Loads. This application discloses a method for transporting elongated, bulky loads with a cable-guided lifting body having a carrying cable with a balloon node and a crane node. A plurality of mobile controllable winches include winch cables fastened in the lower region of the load suspension unit. Crane winch cables are raised to the crane node and secured in a remote-controlled manner via hoisting cables. While mobile, this application has little to no utility based upon its structure and function for providing a self transportable aerostat system capable of including surveillance or communications requirement in its payload for deployment in areas such as the battle field.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a self transportable aerostat system that can be deployed from a mobile ground mooring system.
It is another object to provide a rugged mobile system to handle harsh terrain and operation environments as opposed to flatbed trailer based ground mooring systems not suitable for these in field conditions.